Here's why Olympic athletes are wearing strange tape that looks like a tattoo — and what we know about how it works

Athletes like Mirai Nagasu and Ted Ligety have been spotted at the Winter Olympics wearing streaks of tape.

Nagasu had it on her leg, which confused viewers who thought it might be some kind of tattoo.

But these athletes are actually wearing kinesio tape provided to Team USA by KT Tape.

It's not clear based on scientific research whether the tape actually helps. But there might be good reasons for athletes to wear it anyway.

US figure skater Mirai Nagasu stunned Winter Olympics figure skating watchers over the weekend with her impressive performance — she was the first American woman to ever land a triple axel at the Olympics.

In this year's Winter Games, some alpine skiers have also been wearing the tape on their faces to protect themselves from the freezing air. KT Tape is capitalizing on the moment by offering discounts on the "mystery tattoo" tape.

The KT Tape company web site says the tape is "designed to relieve pain while supporting muscles, tendons, and ligaments."

But the science on whether Kinesio tape actually works isn't clear. Wearing it may be beneficial for Olympic athletes — but not necessarily for the reason the competitors choose to put it on.

Recently, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady showed up for the AFC Championship Game wearing KT Tape. He was using it protect stitches he'd received to treat a gash in his right hand.

The KT Tape website claims the product "helps reduce pressure to the tissue and may reduce discomfort or pain. Correct taping also provides support to muscles by improving the muscle's ability to contract, even when it is weak, and helps the muscle to not over-extend or over-contract."

Kinesio Tex Tape, which is what athletes were first spotted wearing in 2008, was designed by a Japanese chiropractor in 1979. Kinesio's website says their tape "alleviates discomfort and facilitates lymphatic drainage by microscopically lifting the skin." They say that it can be "applied over muscles to reduce pain and inflammation, relax overused or tired muscles, and support muscles in movement on a 24-hour-a-day basis."

Most of us first noticed the tape on beach volleyball players.
REUTERS/Marcelo del Pozo

To tape or not to tape

Several reviews of studies have analyzed the clinical use of kinesio taping for people with musculoskeletal conditions, and found no evidence it helped patients. So people with chronic conditions that need treatment (not usually Olympic athletes) probably won't see any benefit from using the tape.

Overall, it seems that if there's any benefit, it's not large or easy to measure.

Yet there are many athletes who have have turned to tape. In addition to Olympians and NFL players, Lance Armstrong and David Beckham used the adhesive during their careers.

Even if the tape doesn't do much from a physical perspective, there may be a good reason for the athletes who use it to keep doing so.

Competitions are won or lost by fractions of a second, so even some very slight pain relief or increase in range of motion matters to an Olympic athlete. A .05% performance gain could be the difference between standing on the podium or sitting off to the side.

If there's no performance boost whatsoever from the tape, it could still be worth wearing if an athlete thinks it helps them. Study after study has documented the benefits of the placebo effect. People who think they've been given caffeine or morphine feel less fatigue or pain, even if all they've ingested is a sugar pill.

As physiology professor Steve Harridge told Reuters in 2012, "the fact that athletes think it's going to do them some good can help in a psychological way."

Athletes tend to cling to anything that might give them a performance boost. If tape makes someone feel there's less reason to worry about a tight hamstring or sore back, the relaxation that comes with that state of mind may make the difference between a winning performance and one that falls short.